What’s fast-track security worth to you?

Starting with the premise that time is money (and, on occasion, sanity) a Business Travel Coalition (BTC) survey concludes that 82 percent of those responding want the airlines to embrace Registered Traveler initiatives: fast-track security clearance that gets them through an airport’s prime bottleneck, the security checkpoint, with less hassle.

BTC ran the survey for FLO, a firm specializing in biometric credentialing processes and identification technologies for use in airports.

Eighty percent of survey respondents say they’re willing to spend some money to get through security faster - $99 for membership in a Registered Traveler program, a program that does not provide benefits such as not having to take off your coat, your shoes, or unpack your laptop.

Registered Traveler efforts are aiming at eliminating precisely those kinds of burdens, but they aren’t up and running yet at least not on a consistent basis.

“Travelers are indicating that not having to remove shoes or laptops would be a convenience,” argues FLO CEO Glenn Argenbright, but “what is truly convenient to them is expeditious security lane processing that is predictable and consistent from airport to airport”. It’s the lack of consistency among Transportation Security Administration checkpoints that puts passengers in a position where they can’t plan their trips with any degree of exactitude.

The Business Travel Coalition found that 38 percent of those responding to its survey say they would be extremely or very interested in paying another $199 for membership in a program that goes beyond security processing, one that would give them reserved parking at the airport, remote baggage check-in at hotels, and global assistance.

BTC Chairman Kevin Mitchell calls early Registered Traveler initiatives “RT 1.0”. The kinds of add-ons Mitchell envisions would be what he terms “RT 2.0 – more mature, customer-responsive”.

Perhaps the most highly visible RT firm in the marketplace is Clear. It operates fast-track security lanes under TSA regulations at seven airports, and is about to open lanes at five other fields. Starting in Orlando a couple of years back, Clear now has some 52,000 members.

Some observers believe that for any form of Registered Traveler to really take off, and sign up the number of people it needs to ultimately succeed, TSA must somehow allow fully shod travelers, with packed laptops, and wearing coats to pass through security without having to shed these items.

Other entities, such as FLO, believe — for now — that it is enough that passage through security be predictable and faster.

This much seems sure: in the coming months fliers will be voting with their pocketbooks on how successful the RT system is going to have a chance to become.

© Cheapflights Ltd Jerry Chandler